take me by the hand
by a cold day in december
Summary: Ally pretends she's not good at the whole comforting thing, but really, she's the best. / Ally helps Austin through another trip to the hospital and her babbling doesn't totally ruin the day. In fact, it does quite the opposite. AUSLLY. Drabble/oneshot.


**disclaimer:** Soy dueño de nada. Thought I'd do it in Spanish because, well... I can.

**summary:** Ally pretends she's not good at the whole comforting thing, but really, she's the best. / Ally helps Austin through another trip to the hospital and her babbling doesn't totally ruin the day. In fact, it does quite the opposite. AUSLLY. Drabble/oneshot.

**prompts/inspiration:** Successes & Setbacks scene, also the lyric _you took me by the hand _& _I can feel my heart / It's beating in my chest._

**music:** today was a fairytale – taylor swift.

**a/n:** I think this whole pairing could potentially be made of TSwift.

**also: **You guys better be thanking successes and setbacks right now, otherwise I would _not_ be writing this. Trust me. Lack of inspiration is evident. The next chapter of SM should be up soon. There's a slightly long _a/n _about my absence and such. ANYWAY.

AND I THINK I HAVE A THING FOR WRITING ABOUT HOPSITALS. This is my second story now. Oh well, whatever. _Enjoy!_

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**take me by the hand**

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:::

Ally pretends she's not good at the whole comforting thing, but really, she's the best.

Psh. Of course she is. She just gets carried away sometimes and realises that her stories are a little more out there than most.

And most of the time they don't help but that's okay, it doesn't really matter.

One time though, she manages to tell a story that does help.

"I still hate doctor's offices. Especially after last time." Austin says as he looks around warily. "Stupid jab. Stupid hospital. Stupid—"

He feels a hand gently placed over his own and cuts himself off. His and Ally's hands are resting on his knee, and he welcomes the comforting gesture. "Thanks." He says and she nods, breathing deeply through her mouth because she really hates the hospital smell.

She described her dislike to the odour using a simile. (One of the _many_ things Austin is now better at understanding.) The sticky smell from the infirmary is like that of an old woman's cheap perfume, she had said — cloying and unwanted, but sadly inevitable and unavoidable.

That's when she starts up. "One time when I came to the hospital—"

"—Oh my God, Ally, no. I love you, but you're just going to make me feel worse." Neither of them flinches at the casual use of those three words. They have said it plenty of times, in that completely platonic way that most bestfriends do.

Austin ponders briefly on why the fact that those words have no romantic impact bothers him more than it should, but then Ally's talking again. "No, I promise this is a nice story." She looks at him with that earnest face and he really doesn't stand a chance.

He makes a _well go on then_ gesture and she smiles.

At first he doesn't really hear what she's saying. It's just the prelude to her story and Austin accidently zones out, fear consuming him. The arm he's supposed to be having his injection in twitches slightly and he shakes himself, coming back to the real world.

However, he's definitely glad it's only him and Ally here. He tries to tell himself it's because embarrassment in front of others is just unnecessary, he only needs his bestfriend.

It doesn't work.

"—So then, by that time, we had to take Uncle John to the hospital, even though he complained the whole way there. He really didn't want the injection, but he didn't really have a choice. He sat down on a bed a bit like this one and then he sat very, very still."

Austin anticipated the moment where Ally's story would just make him want to cry and tensed.

"They only allowed one person in, God knows why, maybe they were busy. Anyway, I expected my Auntie to go in, but everyone said I should go instead. I thought it was crazy considering my past experience with unhelpful stories." She looked at him with a quirky little smile and he bit back a laugh.

"What happened then?" He asked.

"Well, I could see he was really worried — seriously. You know when people say they're scared, but really, they know they'll be okay? Well it wasn't like that." Austin mentally cringes but let her continue. "His eyes were really wide and he just had that look, that _feel_ and I knew I really had to be there with him and for him, so I did the only thing I could think of."

Ally looked past Austin for just a moment, but he didn't read into it. Despite part of him not wanting to know what was going to happen, part of him really did.

"I took his hand in mine." She said, and gently held Austin's hand in her own. She laced her fingers in between his, her small hand almost delicate looking in his big one. "Then I smiled at him." Ally gave Austin her warm smile, and he felt as if the fire on the poster on the opposite wall was real — warm and bright.

"And I told him he could cling on and hold my hand however much he liked because I was going to be there for him no matter what." Ally gives him that look, the one where she _gazes_ at him from beneath her eyelashes and he feels his resistance crumbling because she can't _do_ things like that when he's _desperately _trying to deny his feelings for her and—

He feels the needle in his arm, instead of tensing; he squeezes the life out of Ally's hand and scrunches his eyes shut. _He really hates needles. _But then it's all over, and he gets a nice _Toy Story _sticker put on his arm, and he turns to see Ally smiling.

Their palms are a little sweaty because well, this _is_ real life. Not everything is perfect like in the films. Austin makes no move to let go and neither does she.

He puts two and two together and realises she _knew _the doctor was there with the needle, and distracted him long enough to actually not panic about the injection.

"Thank you." He breathes out to her in a soft tone that he's never heard himself use. "_Thank you._" He brings her hand to his lips and kisses the back of it gently, causing her to giggle.

"It's okay." Ally leads him out and they get all the necessities done and papers signed before they walk back into the car park, towards his car and home.

"I never got to ask you." He begins. "Did your other story have a happy ending?" At this, she just grins.

"Oh that." Her smile is wide, "I just made it up to calm you down."

He looks at her a little disbelievingly. She just grins right back and he chuckles. "That was a great story." He looks at her sincerely. "You're too good."

They slip into his car, her in the passenger seat and her face is blank, _open_ as she says: "Maybe. But definitely not good enough for you."

He'd been putting his keys in to start the car but he leaves them dangling to turn to her, searching her eyes for hints, implications, _anything. _Her stare is intense but he can't turn away, not now, not when his heart is beating in his chest so fast it could outrun his swanky sports car. "Of course you're good enough. God Ally, you're _more _than good enough." He says in that same breathy voice from earlier.

Austin then looks away breaking the moment and attempting nonchalance as he starts the car. "So, um, do you maybe want to go and get ice cream, or something?"

He sees her looking at him out of the corner of his eye, eyes glittering and a small smile upon her face. She gently places her hand over one of his that rests on the middle of the dashboard.

"I'd love to."

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**a/n****: **So, there it is. My first oneshot in a while. Sorry if it's not great, I just wanted to get something up and posted, you know? For you guys. I love you. And you can probably expect more oneshots to come. I'm on a bit of a roll. I've started four things and this is the first one I've finished so. Look forward to it :)

**Please, please review. It means so much!**

**—- **Sophie.


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